


Devoted Unto You

by lilithiumwords



Series: Gods on High [2]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Demigods, M/M, Mythology - Freeform, Reincarnation, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 10:00:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17302544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilithiumwords/pseuds/lilithiumwords
Summary: He was loved, once; and so he loves still.





	Devoted Unto You

**Author's Note:**

> This is my piece for [Soulbound](https://yoisoulmatezine.tumblr.com/), a zine dedicated to the theme of soulmates. This story follows Viktor's POV of my other demigod story, _Unto Devotion_ , and I partnered with [skitchell for an amazing collaboration](http://skitschell.tumblr.com/post/175228939528/preview-for-soulbound). You can read this piece as a standalone or with its sibling story. Thank you so much for your support!

_He will be a child of the gods. He will love, and he will be loved. He will walk through roses and war, hand in hand in mercy, and mercy will love him, too. Forever entwined with mercy, he will save us all._

Viktor first opens his eyes to a world in chaos, yet he is too young to understand it. Later, he will loathe it.

He grows up _different_ from everyone. He is faster, stronger, brighter. He can lift massive stones with only one hand. He can outrun the greatest of war steeds. He learns to speak very young, and he is taught languages, math, philosophy, and history. He studies everything his mother wishes him to know.

_You will save the world,_ she tells him, and Viktor does not believe it. His mother was told a prophecy as a girl, and when she became queen, she prayed to the gods, until one, only one, answered her wish. He was the god that grew the first flower after the snow melted, and he gave the queen a child. Thus, Viktor was born, and the queen worried, for though he was beautiful, he did not seem the mighty warrior that had been foretold.

When he is old enough, Viktor reads the words of an oracle, that speak of the child of a queen and a god, of roses and mercy and war, and he still does not believe. He does not let it get to him, though. If he is fated to save the world, then Viktor will carry out his duty. The people love him, and Viktor does not want to disappoint them.

Viktor grows up loved. The light of the gods shines from his eyes. Roses sprout at his feet if Viktor merely wills it, and he takes to sowing rose vines everywhere in the country, to spread the beauty that he sees wherever he looks. The gardens of the palace are the most beautiful in the kingdom.

As Viktor grows older, he grows more powerful. The queen sends him to the borders to fight off invaders, and Viktor goes, swinging a sword in his hand like he was born to wield it. To honor his brilliance, they build a temple in his name, with a statue of his personage, and all of the walls and ceiling are painted with gold and shining crystals.

Viktor spends his free time walking through the gardens around his temple, thinking about what his life means to his country. It isn't loneliness, but Viktor longs for something new and exciting, something different than lessons and responsibility and war. It is there that he meets Yuuri.

Viktor nearly trips over him one warm spring day, just as the season is edging into summer. The roses will bloom year-round if Viktor lets them, and he likes to see all the colors that they can become.

He does not expect a stranger to be tending to his roses in the middle of his path. When Viktor turns the corner, he stumbles over the stranger's leg, sending them both careening. Viktor manages to catch himself, but the stranger flails and falls on his side.

"Y-your highness," stutters the boy -- no, a young man. He blinks up at Viktor with large, dark eyes, glass lenses on his face. "I am so sorry, I did not know you were here!"

"It's fine," Viktor says, blinking a few times. The man has a spot of dirt on his cheek. Smiling a little, Viktor offers his hand. "I didn't see you there. Here, let me help you up."

"Okay," whispers the man, hesitating just a moment before setting his dirty hand in Viktor's clean palm. Viktor smiles, not minding the dirt, and pulls him to his feet. The man is nearly as tall as him. "Um... I was hired to tend to your roses," the stranger whispers, staring up at Viktor with wide eyes. This close, Viktor can see how pink his lips are.

"What's your name?" Viktor asks gently.

"Yuuri," his stranger answers hesitantly, and just like that, Viktor falls in love.

He visits the gardens every day, finding Yuuri amidst the vines and sitting with him, talking with him. Yuuri always seems shy in his presence, but he grows more comfortable with Viktor's otherworldly gaze on him, even taking to joking with him. Viktor takes to bringing Yuuri plates of fruit and ripe cheeses, wine and cured meats, sharing the tributes people leave for him.

Yuuri, sweet thing that he is, often tries to protest. Viktor's response, every time, is this: "If they give it to me, then it is mine to do with as I wish. And I wish to share it with my dear friend. Would you deny me this, Yuuri?"

Yuuri cannot deny him. Viktor falls a little more in love every time Yuuri sighs, shaking his head with a small smile on his soft-looking lips. He tells Viktor, in his gentle way, that he grew up listening to tales of Viktor's feats and beauty, and that he made a little shrine in his own home to Viktor, where he prayed every day. Viktor has heard prayers all his life, but never did he imagine that they belonged to Yuuri.

He tells Yuuri to pray to him every night, and Viktor will listen. Every night when Viktor goes to sleep, he hears Yuuri's prayer for Viktor to be healthy, for the war to end quickly, and for Viktor to love him.

Oh, does Viktor love him. He tells Yuuri so every day, and each time, Yuuri looks at him with such a gaze that Viktor is left breathless. Who is he meant for, if not for Yuuri?

Viktor does not like to think of the war. He does his duty, and when he returns, he escapes to his garden where Yuuri waits. Often after a battle, Viktor will come and rest beside Yuuri in the soft earth, content to listen to Yuuri's gentle humming as he takes care of Viktor's roses.

Viktor kisses Yuuri for the first time in his garden. Yuuri's lips taste just as sweet as they look, blossoming pink under the rain of kisses Viktor bestows. He makes love to Yuuri surrounded by roses, hued blue and red and pink and yellow, the colors of Viktor's love.

"We shouldn't," Yuuri whispers, but his hands never let go. He gasps as Viktor moves with him, his gardener's hands clutching Viktor's shoulders. Viktor holds him tightly, and Yuuri leans up for another soft kiss. For the first time in Viktor's life, he feels loved, alive. He could spend forever in this paradise with Yuuri, basking in his love.

Yet one day, Yuuri disappears. When Viktor searches for him, he learns that Yuuri was sent away.

"He was distracting you," says the queen. The shadows under her eyes grow darker every day. Viktor has been ignoring them, because he does not want to think of the war at their borders. "I sent him home. You must protect us, Viktor."

Viktor seethes. He rages and he argues and he begs, but his mother refuses to let Yuuri return. Viktor turns cold toward her and throws himself into his duties, determined to finish this war quickly, so that Yuuri may return to his arms.

Yet one day, one horrible, miserable day, Yuuri leaves him forever.

Viktor feels it as it happens, one day when he is reading in the garden: a sudden shout in his mind, followed by silence. The book in his hands falls to the ground, and Viktor stands shakily, disappearing from sight. He reappears in the middle of a city aflame with war, on a street bathed in innocent lives. The worst of all is the body of his beloved, crouched in the shadows, as if protecting something precious.

Viktor kneels before Yuuri and gathers him close, lowering his head. The wounds in Yuuri's body, the pain on his soul -- Viktor takes them and holds them close, burrowing them into his guilt. Then he touches Yuuri's face, relaxed in death.

"My love, I will not let you be alone," Viktor whispers, and he stands. His hands begin to glow with otherworldly light, and oh so carefully, he gathers the shattered pieces of Yuuri's gentle soul to him. Then he looks upon the burning city, and he hates.

"You do not deserve him," Viktor seethes, then disappears forever. Let them burn -- let them suffer. Without Yuuri, Viktor has no reason to remain.

Alone, with his precious burden cupped in his hands, Viktor goes to his father's realm. He makes his own home there, a place where Yuuri can rest away from the pain of life. Here, time passes slowly, and Viktor keeps watch over Yuuri as he heals, the brilliance of his soul slowly brightening.

To give Yuuri comfort, Viktor sends him dreams, of their memories of each other, and of the love they could have had. Though he cannot be together with Yuuri, for Yuuri was merely a mortal and cannot exist here, Viktor devotes himself to looking after him, tending to Yuuri's soul as Yuuri once tended to his roses. Being with him like this is enough.

Until, one day, Yuuri leaves him again.

_I must go back,_ he seems to whisper to Viktor. _I must live again._

"Don't leave me," Viktor begs. "I cannot go there again. I cannot follow you."

_I will always be with you,_ Yuuri whispers to him, before his soul vanishes away. Viktor falls to his knees and cries, because he cannot live without Yuuri.

His father comes to him later, after Viktor's tears have run dry, and he says, "You may watch him, if you wish." He leads Viktor to a spring, where the water becomes a window to the mortal realm. There Viktor kneels, and there he watches.

Yuuri is born to a poor family. He grows up loved, and his hands take to working the earth easily, as if he remembers how to tend to the fragile briars of roses. His eyes are bright, sparkling with love for the world around him. Viktor aches to go to his side, but he cannot return to the mortal realm. No mortal remembers him, and they no longer pray for him. He is all but dead to them, now.

Except to one -- his Yuuri.

_Oh Viktor, lord of vine and hearth, may you watch over my family and home,_ whispers a familiar voice one day, while Viktor is lounging by the pond. He stares at Yuuri's tiny form kneeling in front of a charcoal drawing, his hands clasped in prayer. His heart leaps in joy, because somehow, Yuuri still believes in him.

Yuuri prays to him every night. He grants Viktor's blessing to his roses and suppers, and his garden is richer for it. Viktor sends what little power he can, taking comfort in each prayer that reaches him, watching as Yuuri builds a little shrine in his garden. Each time Yuuri touches the worn wood of the tiny shrine, Viktor almost feels it on his skin, and he rejoices.

The world is not kind, though, and Viktor must watch Yuuri suffer. Though Viktor's blessing works upon Yuuri's crops, the lands are slowly starving, as the encroaching war stops supplies and steals workers. When the food can no longer support Yuuri's family, Yuuri chooses to leave, traveling to find work.

While he travels, he is taken, enslaved by the enemy that Viktor failed to vanquish. Never has Viktor hated himself more in those long months of watching Yuuri suffer.

Yuuri survives, though, and he continues to travel. He walks deeper into the heart of the old country, praying to Viktor every night as he makes his way through the darkness. With every prayer, Viktor grows a little more powerful, a little more capable. He begins to send more blessings: luck when Yuuri is foraging, kindness when Yuuri asks for help, safety when Yuuri must hide. 

As Viktor watches the world through Yuuri's eyes, he learns that war has destroyed everything. The enemy has invaded and defeated, and they continue to take the lands that do not belong to them, forcing people into poverty and subjugation. Viktor stopped caring about his mother's world years ago, but now he regrets it, because Yuuri suffers for them.

Yet Yuuri never returns his captors' hatred. He never treats others unkindly. He always gives where he can, bringing smiles to thin and hungry faces. Viktor wonders how Yuuri can still love the world that has tormented him.

Perhaps, if Yuuri prays for it, Viktor will save them. For him, and him alone.

When Yuuri comes to his temple, where the wild roses bloom, Viktor realizes he has power again. He can go to Yuuri, if he so wishes -- and he longs to be with the one who makes his soul sing. He watches as Yuuri offers a small sacrifice of an apple and a rose, burning them before Viktor's visage, and he waits.

Yuuri's final prayer comes to Viktor before the cusp of war.

_Viktor, please come back. Please save us._

Viktor feels his own power and smiles, then crosses the veil to Yuuri's realm, taking the place of the statue where Yuuri prayed. He comes into the world carrying a sword and a handful of roses, echoing the words of a prophet centuries ago.

Yet Viktor only has eyes for Yuuri.

"I don't think I will save everyone," he says, stepping over the broken ground of his temple, to where Yuuri waits. "But you... my dear Yuuri." When Viktor is close enough to touch, he cannot resist running his fingers back through Yuuri's hair. "I will move the world to save you."

Yuuri lifts his head, his eyes wide with hope. 

Viktor smiles at him, then holds out his hand. "Come, Yuuri. Let us save the world you love. That is my gift to you, darling," he says. When Yuuri takes his hand, Viktor doesn't hesitate to pull him into his arms, the sword and roses dropping to their feet.

"I waited," Yuuri whispers into Viktor's shoulder. "Years and years..."

"I know," Viktor murmurs, thinking of the pain Yuuri has suffered for him. "I made you wait too long. I am sorry, my Yuuri." His fingers touch the scars on Yuuri's back, hidden beneath a thin, ragged shirt. Yuuri can only shake his head.

"It doesn't matter. You're here."

"I am, and I will never leave you again."

So they walk through war, hand in hand, with roses growing at their feet. It is Yuuri's mercy that saves the world. The people grow to love Yuuri as they once loved Viktor, and they begin to believe in him, until one day, Yuuri holds his own divine light. When that day comes, Viktor takes him home, where they live together in happiness.


End file.
